No lasering for first few passes

[Tim Baude]

I am sure this has been asked before, but I notice the first job I run in a day or night, as it seems to usually be, the laser doesn't fire for a few passes, then will start. I usually let the job finish, then go back and run again then stop it when it fills in what was missed. Any thoughts on what might be causing this? Rest of the jobs run fine.

On another note, after doing my first "paying job" the previous year winners wish they had won a year later so they could have had my plaques instead of the ones they had gotten from an established company. Good way to start...hope it continues.

[Jim Watkins]

This is pretty common. I usually place a scrap in my epilog and rerun a word or something till it fires. I never run a job until I know it is firing.

[Pete Simmons]

Yes - very common.

Epilog will tell you to adjust the tickle voltage. Give them a call. This will help but not eliminate it.

Just engrave a line in vector mode at 100% power. Does not need to be in focus. Throw in a piece of scrap wood to catch the beam.

It is connected to the physics of how the laser works. It appears to get worse as the tube ages.

[Clint Lauricella]

I have a Vytek laser and I keep a file named 'Warmup' that's the first one I run in the morning on a scrap 6X6 tile.

[David Lavaneri]

Tim,

Ambient temperature (cold) can also play a role in whether a laser fires or not. A friend of mine was doing on-site engraving (outdoors) and discovered the laser wasn't firing because of the cold weather.

David "The Stunt Engraver" Lavaneri

[Kevin Huffman]

We see it alot more with Coherent Deos tubes than Synrad tubes. For some reason they sometimes take a little bit more to get agitated enough to fire.

Depending on the machine, we sometimes have a scrap piece of material in and fire on it before actually running a job.

You might also want to take a look at the safety shut off system (Magnets). Sometimes don't have the warming up option, they simply begin processing the job before the laser is able to fire. What you may want to do is give it ample time to warm up. Put your material in, focus and then shut all the lids and go to computer to send the file over. This will ensure that the magnets have enough time to tell the laser tube it is ready fire and allow it to get warmed up.

[AL Ursich]

Good Tip !!! Thanks !!!!

AL

[Peck Sidara]

The subject's been brought up a few times already. If you have an Epilog Mini/Helix/EXT, contact our tech support group at tech at epiloglaser dot com or 303.215.9171. With a firmware upgrade to your machine, there are some settings you can adjust to fix this. Laser T.I. & Laser T.M. Check it out.